Now is the time to become a mentor

January 09, 2009

National Mentoring Month is January. Who had an impact on your life? Who made you want to be a better person? For many of us, we can easily answer that question by thinking of our parents, a coach or a member of the clergy. But, for many people, it is difficult to think of someone who mentored them growing up. And that's where Big Brothers Big Sisters of Berrien and Cass comes in. Big Brothers and Big Sisters not only serve as mentors to the children between the ages of 6 and 12, but they also may be Lunch Buddies who meet their mentees for lunch at school one day a week. All of these moments of mentoring can truly change the life of a child. BBBS of BC will host three receptions to celebrate such moments and for prospective volunteers who would like to learn more. Receptions will be: 11:30 to 1 p.m. Wednesday at Lake Michigan Catholic High School in St. Joseph; 4:30 to 6 p.m. Jan. 20 at our Niles office; and from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 at the New Buffalo Community Youth Center. For directions, call (877) 367-2244 or e-mail at info@bbbsofbc.org.

Self-defense Regarding Israel's defense of its nation with the invasion of the Gaza Strip: If Mexico were sending civilian-killing rockets into El Paso, Texas, what do you think we citizens would want our government to do?

Phil RossMishawaka

Fire lanes I am curious why drivers believe it is acceptable to park in the fire lane of stores and restaurants. The signs clearly state "No parking fire lane." They do not state "No parking fire lane except for the following ..." 1) I only need to return a movie. 2) I just need to purchase a gallon of milk. 3) I only want to buy a lottery ticket. 4) It is cold out. The yellow striping along the curb and signs posted mean no parking or standing, period! Perhaps our alleged economically stressed county can generate additional income by writing more parking tickets? Now that's a good idea!

Philip SmithLakeville

Capitalism I find it amusing that I should be defending the successfully proven economic model of capitalism from the comments of former left-winger, turned right-winger, turned left-winger, Greek blogger and leftist heroine Arianna Huffington in her Dec. 28 column, "Laissez-faire capitalism must die." Huffington says that "laissez-faire capitalism has been a monumental failure in practice ... It's time to drive the final nail into the coffin ... by treating it like the discredited ideology it inarguably is." And that, "... the Bush administration's devotion to unregulated markets was a primary cause of our economy to ruin." What Huffington fails to understand (aside from the fact that she received $5 million in capital funding for her blog from venture capital firms including Softbank Capital), is that blame for the current financial crisis should not fall on unregulated markets, but on government-regulated lending policies and the creation of government-sponsored enterprises that expanded home ownership by introducing nebulous government protections and mandates forced into the private sector -- all in the name of social equality. If lending markets were allowed to function unfettered of these government "protections" and mandates, the natural inclination of survival would not have allowed these businesses to plow headlong into the speculative practices that really created this mess.